NOVEMBER 29, 2018
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Fighting for Financial Aid “...while every other American boarding school was created for the most affluent in American society, St. Andrew’s privileged financial aid students; it was and is their school, their open door, their second home, their community.”
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hen Walden Pell received an invitation to become St. Andrew’s first Head of School, the School’s Founder Alexis Felix duPont surprised him by saying that in addition to buying the land and building the School, he intended to create a sizeable endowment to support the mission and operation. At first, Dr. Pell was suspicious of a school supported and funded by a generous endowment; he memorably said that he was not sure he wanted to lead a school with “a silver spoon in its mouth,” a figure of speech that implied that the school would be immediately entitled, privileged, rich, and therefore he implied, weak, pampered and complacent. After speaking with the Founder, Walden Pell discovered that every essence of the St. Andrew’s experiment involved something very different. The School began, emerged, and strengthened itself as the very antithesis of the American boarding school. Our endowment gave us the unique opportunity to invest in an American principle of equality of opportunity. Mr. duPont created the first American boarding school with a mission to educate students from all socioeconomic backgrounds, and together four Heads of School were given the opportunity to make sure the St. Andrew’s experiment in education expanded to include the rich diversity of the American and global family. In other words, while every other American boarding school was created for the most affluent in American society, St. Andrew’s privileged financial aid students; it was and is their school, their open door, their second home, their community. And precisely because of this generous and unfolding experiment in opportunity and inclusion, we all came to St. Andrew’s: teachers who sought to teach at a school with students from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences; students from all socioeconomic groups who wanted to
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